Going back to the mechanic of releasing two new topics every two weeks, the SPARK community worked their magic during the past Season 2.2 for the topics #memesReloaded and #patterns. Even though there were literally hundreds of submissions over the last two weeks, here are just a handful of some of our favorites!

Martyn Lopez – #patterns

Martyn Lopez created these stunning .strandberg*-inspired cross-stitched piece of art for the #patterns topic! Fully embracing the concept of producing art with patterns, these digitally-created pieces truly showcase what SPARK is all about, and we love the end result.

From Martyn:

“I can’t cross stitch but if I could!!! I would totally hang some cross-stitch .strandberg*s on my wall! Digitally fakin’ it till I’m makin’ it!”

You can learn more about Martyn’s SPARK submission here.

Finn Trott – #patterns

Guitarist Finn Trott created this mesmerizing and beautiful piece of music from the #patterns topic. As Finn states:

“I’ve been TOTALLY inspired by the cool tessellated patterns and stuff some of you have created! The idea of taking a .strandberg* which is essentially quite an odd shape (but beautiful nonetheless), and turning it into something that makes sense as a pattern is just so cool I wanted to make some music inspired by that concept! – so in this I have tried to emulate that idea by having a pulse in groupings of 5 to create that oddness in shape (but in an aural sense), with an aim of trying to keep it melodic and not totally jarring; as was accomplished with the tessellations and pattern ideas – and I’d be rude not to wear my most patterned piece of clothing doing this hence the wicked poncho.”

You can watch Finn’s SPARK submission video here.

James Dawes – #patterns

Inspired by the #patterns topic, James Dawes set out to create this custom glowing ukelele build! We love the ingenuity that went into this specific project and hope to see the final result one day!

From James:

“I’ve made several patterns today as I came up with an idea for my ukelele build. It started with me cutting sound holes and grew from there. I added some lights behind the sound holes as it looked interesting with my phone light held behind it. This was then added to by seeing light seep through the edges due to some unfortunate bowing in the wood, however, this inspired me to put a sheet of acrylic sandwiched between the wood to create this awesome effect. I can’t wait to play this on a dark stage!!!”

You can learn more about James’ SPARK submission here.

Tyler Belisle-Toler – #patterns

Another beautiful sonic interpretation of the #patterns topic, guitarist Tyler Belisle-Toler wrote this challenging-yet-beautiful piece dealing with odd time signatures.

From Tyler:

“So in the last couple of years, I have become fascinated with topics in urban planning, especially through the lens of how the built environment and even the smallest modifications can have such a profound impact on our day-to-day lives. These little things such as where you place a bench or how a piece of land is zoned can greatly impact how we behave and interact in these built environments. In some ways, I love this idea that cities are these highly organized systems where planners have found ways to coax us to better engage with our environments. On the flip side, that is also such a terrifying idea that humans can be subconsciously coaxed into a plaza or to congregate in a certain spot.
These ideas shape the concepts and stories that I TRY to put in my own music. I started writing a piece called ‘Pedantic Rows’, which was partially inspired by Margaret Atwood’s (yes the author of The Handmaid’s Tale) poem ‘The City Planners’. She tackles a lot of these same issues about how design and policy can be a form of control or coercion, especially when we don’t take human nature into consideration when designing a street or neighborhood. The idea of pedantic rows is that design can become so orderly and patterned that it becomes too perfect. This is clearly a problem when considering we live in a very chaotic world where entropy will always be the domineering force. I believe the pressure of a built environment that does not acknowledge entropy and tries to force humans to exist within a metaphorical hamster wheel has done irreparable damage that we have no way of even measuring. To try and capture the dichotomy between the order of planners and the chaotic nature of humans, I created this simple 7/8 pattern of four clean shimmery chords politely moving around in a repetitive motion while the rest of the song acts as a counter. At times the two pieces still lock in together almost seeming to have some moments of agreement before splitting apart again.

For the record, I do believe planning has come a long way since the days of Robert Moses and the other planners who destroyed black neighborhoods and communities for freeways and other excessive/unnecessary developments. I do a lot of work in the transportation planning field where there is a large shift towards community engagement and identifying ways to create more human-centered design. This song I am working on comes as more of a criticism of 20th-century urban planning and it’s a constant push to create something wholly unnatural and punishing.”

You can watch Tyler’s SPARK submission video here.

Jón Þór Sigurleifsson – #memesReloaded

While there were numerous submissions for the #memesReloaded topic specifically this one referencing ergonomic, Swedish design from Jón Þór Sigurleifsson was one of our favorites! You can see his submission on the SPARK page here.

Tyler Belisle-Toler – #memesReloaded

Another fun and creative submission from Tyler Belisle-Toler, this Salen witch trials meme was a great showcase of .strandberg* guitars and memes colliding! “We just wanted to go into the woods and play some headless guitars and now all the Fender bois are after us”, stated Tyler. You can see his full SPARK meme submission here.

.strandberg* SPARK is the official Facebook group of .strandberg* Guitars, dedicated to finding new ways to be creative via prompts that are announced every two weeks. You can learn more about SPARK and join the community here.